After mucho requests for a fireplace tutorial, we’re here to deliver the goods. As you can see, we’re no strangers to a painted brick fireplace…

…or two.

In fact, painting the fireplace in the living room and the den was one of the first things we did when we moved in. Dingy brick can really suck the life out of a room if you’re not careful. Especially the ugly dark red kind that we had when we moved in- and especially when paired with lighter furnishings and wall colors (which just happen to be things that we adore).

Natural brick certainly has a place in many homes (and also in our hearts, it just didn’t work for our light and airy aesthetic- and our brick was especially maroon). So here’s what we did to bring some soft beauty to both of our brick fireplaces in a flash and on the cheap. Gotta love a makeover you can accomplish in an afternoon (no power tools required).

Step 1- Wipe down your bricks with a moist (not sopping wet!) rag to remove any cobwebs or soot.

Step 2- If your bricks are especially soot stained, you’ll want to prime them with oil based primer to ensure that no soot stains bleed through your paint job. Neither of our fireplaces had this problem so we skipped right to step three.

Step 3- Use a nappy roller meant for textured surfaces to apply two to three coats of flat or semi-gloss latex paint (the finish is up to you). You also may need to rely on a paint brush to get into those deep grout crevices. Brick is an especially porous material (which explains why your fireplace may call for three coats) so be sure to have more paint on hand than you’d usually rely on for such a small surface area (our den fireplace took over a gallon of paint, and the one in our living room took nearly half a gallon).

Step 4- Do the happy dance cause you’re done. Easy, right? If you can paint a wall you can definitely paint a brick fireplace.

Good luck with your big fireplace transformation! Oh and why not take before and after pictures for us while you’re at it? Don’t be surprised if your newly painted fireplace inspires you to continue the makeover with new art above the mantel or a few fresh accessories. Homes are never really finished anyway, are they?

Looking for more ways to spruce up your fireplace? A woven basket full of firewood (we love birch for its crisp look) will add even more inviting ambaince.

399 Comments

Thanks in advance! Love your ideas! I’m in the midst of finishing a walk-out basement that has a RED wood stove situated in a corner, and its hearth is black brick. The tile floor is white. What color to paint the wall behind the stove? It’s the required concrete wall. Paint the hearth to match the wall? Keep it black? Thanks.

Hmm, I would keep the hearth back (and be certain it’s heat resistant paint) and paint the wall a warm wheaty gold color so it feels warm and rich with the red wood stove. Try Benjamin Moore’s Oak Ridge. Hope it helps!

I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to paint our brick fireplace and hearth since we moved into our current house five years ago, and the lovely photos of yours have convinced me that it’s the way to go. I’m having a terrible time choosing a color, though—I don’t know if I should go with white (both built-in bookcases on either side are painted a very white white) or a shade of the yellow on the walls. (see photo here.) It’s a long room, coming off of another room that’s also yellow, so there’s a lot of yellow already, but would that much white be too much, and would I need to paint the mirror and mantle a different color so they wouldn’t get lost? I am clueless, would love to hear any thoughts.

You definitely won’t lose either way, so white would be safe and the entire room would look lovely and expansive while going a shade or two darker than the wall color (with the shelf remaining white and white accessories) will still tie everything together and create more of a focal wall. Hope it helps!

Hello! L~O~V~E your site! Thank you for your wonderful ideas! My husband and I just purchased a vacation cottage, and I have been inspired beyond belief by your decorating ideas! My question is, what color did you use for the “trim” in your home? Was it the same color of white throughout, or did it change from room to room?

On the TV show “Color Splash” they tinted the fire place
brick which darkened the color of the brick slightly. Can
you give me info. on how to accomplish this? I think a tint
of color may have been used in brick sealer but am not sure.

Just drop in on your local hardware store and ask the paint professionals what they would recommend for tinting or staining brick. We’re sure there are many products that will work for you and they should know all about them. Hope it helps!

I just bought a great Pottery Barn candelabra off of craigslist to use in our family room/den fireplace, because my husband and I aren’t fans of burning wood fires and the mess they leave behind! Anyway, ironically I saw that you have one too in your living room. Our fireplace used to have a big, ugly cast iron wood burning stove insert, which we then sold on craiglist. Now we’re left with the empty fireplace with no doors or screen. Again, going to craigslist to get one, but they are all shiny brass. This won’t go with our modern decor at all. Your doors look brass in the before shots. What did you do to paint them? Finally, we have a brick raised hearth, mantle and then the brass doors. Would you paint them all the same color?

As long as you’re not going to use your fireplace often to create fiery blazes, you can just use regular old latex paint to coat the doors in two or three thin layers which should stick like glue (metal actually takes paint really well). We did that three years ago and ours are still going strong. If you will be using your fireplace more often you might want to seek out “heat resistant” spray paint (try Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace, True Value, or even online) so it’s a bit more tolerant of high-heat situations (you can remove the doors, spray them outside, scrape any overspray on the glass with a razor, and hang them back up when they’re all done). Hope it helps!

I love the idea of painting a brick fireplace and will be painting ours soon. Currently our fireplace is white brick but we have light smoky white walls with the fireplace along the accent wall which is a dark grayish plum color. Any ideas on what color we should paint the fireplace? Also the hearth is a big slab of gray cement. Can we paint it using latex paint? What color would you suggest? Thanks so much!!

Yup cement should soak up any old latex paint really well. As for what color to paint the fireplace, you could go with a darker smoky gray, crisp white, or even a rich chocolate tone for something more moody and lodge-chic. Hope it helps!

I can’t believe anyone would want to paint their fireplace white. Ours is white and I hate it. The end of our den is the fireplace with a length wide hearth (or bench) 12″ from the floor to the top and 15 feet long. It is the most useless space I have ever seen. All it does is collect stuff. We are taking to a guy about painting it but I am not sure what color I want all I know is I hate what we have now and I don’t want to make the same mistake. Plus the biggest problem we have is there are four air vents that are a real eyesore that need to be covered. He said he would do our fireplace for $570, does that sound reasonable. Sorry to say we are not handy people. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Well you might not want our advice since we’re people who love a white painted fireplace (and painted both of the brick ones in our house) but we also love them in rich neutral tones like mocha, glossy chocolate, and deep gray so that’s an idea. We’re also not sure if that price you mentioned is a good price since we don’t know if that’s just his fee for painting it and covering the vents or completely refacing it. If it’s the former it seems extremely steep but if he will completely reface your fireplace it sounds about right. Hope it helps!

Sherry,
I love your house!!! Is there any way you can help me? We are hopelessly stuck in our house with the colours. And I think we need to paint the fireplace (until we figure out to do with it). We haven’t done so yet (been here 2 years), because the previous owners cleaned the brick (the house is 47 years old). and I am scared to paint. But the bricks are really ugly organgey, and there is a mahogony mantle, and the bricks go floor to ceiling. There is a dark big tile bench thingy, that is supended mid-air on the fireplace as well. The trouble is, there are far too many colours in the living room. On either side of the fireplace is mahogony wood panels (hand made, not sheets of it), the floor is a dark laminate, and the left side is a huge massive window with gold drapes. They can’t be replaced at this moment, until we replace the window to get a more efficient one, so that helps keep the heat in. We did paint the walls a sagey green, but now that has to be repainted. Just doesn’t go at all. We were thinking of a greyish colour, or a taupey colour. REally not sure.
Would love to have your input on that, or if I can send you a photo to take a quick look at, that would be great! :) Anyhow, any suggestion on the paint colour of the fireplace? I’m ready to jump in and paint it now.
Thanks so much for listening,
Kathy
PS: Sorry for being too long.

We love the idea of a grayish color or a taupey color in there. It’ll temper all the warm wood tones and create a cool yet cozy vibe that feels lighter and airier than the existing orange brick. Here’s a post with all of our favorite paint colors in it so you can go through it and bring home any swatches in the taupey/grayish color categories and hold them up and see which ones look the best with the other tones in the room. In a space like that with lots of materials and colors going on, you definitely want to just bring home a lot of paint swatches and see which ones work best. Hope it helps!

Hey guys! LOVE LOVE LOVE Your site!!! Quick question…. are the shelves on your fireplaces the same color as the fireplace or different? If so, what specific colors did you use for the shlelves and fireplaces?

All of our trim is Benjamin Moore’s Decorators White in semi-gloss. We love it! As for the fireplace shelves, they’re also painted in the Decorators White to work with the crisp tone on the trim and molding and baseboards. And as for the color of the fireplaces, the one in the living room is Ruffled Feathers by Glidden and the one in the den is Water Chestnut also by Glidden. Hope it helps!

I have (gasp) another paint question. I know, **how can someone come up with another paint question for this post**?! But, I promise – you won’t have to type “Ruffled Feathers” or “Water Chestnut” or even “Glidden” :)

I know you referenced either flat or semi-gloss latex paint (depending on desired effect) for the brick, but I would like to know…

What finish did YOU use on your bricks? And is there a reason why you skipped the middle option, “satin”?

Our entire house is either flat or semi-gloss. Flat for all of our home’s walls except for the kitchen and the bathrooms along with all of our ceilings. Semi-gloss for exterior doors and shutters, the kitchen & the bathroom and all of our interior doors and trim. I don’t know why we skipped satin as an option, other than we just wanted to keep it simple and adding a third finish would make it harder to keep track of them all (plus satin really isn’t nearly as wipe-able as semi-gloss and isn’t nearly as flaw-obscuring as flat paint so it seems like an odd compromise, at least to us).

As for the fireplaces, we went with flat for both of them. It’s warm and cozy without being shiny (and years after painting them we don’t have any “cleaning” issues with them. Of course for the mantel and trim it’s nice to choose a semi-gloss finish for wipe-ability. We also like the look of semi-gloss paint on certain brick fireplaces, but mainly in deeper richer colors (we saw Thom Flicia paint a brick fireplace a glossy chocolate tone and it was delicious) but when it comes to white and lighter tones we love the look of flat because it’s less reflective and flashy looking. Hope it helps!

We painted ours with white paint! Metal holds paint really well, just do thin and even applications (with a brush or even with spray paint). You can even get heat-resistant spray paint if you use the fireplace often (we never use ours so I just went with regular white semi-gloss paint applied with a brush). Three years later it’s still in great condition. Hope it helps!

Here’s another little tip: You can buy vulcanised rubber sponges to clean the stone or brick every few months. All you do is wipe the brick down with the dry sponge and all the soot comes off onto the vulcanised rubber. I own a fire/smoke/soot damage restoration company in Sacramento and that’s what we use to clean stone fireplaces that have soot and smoke damage. They work like a charm.

We are wanting to paint our dingy looking fireplace and just wanted some advice. We thought about painting it but then thought about staining it instead. What are your thoughts on this. Could you paint it and then go over it with a stain? Or would it just be better to do one or the other?

You probably don’t want to stain over something you painted since it can look smeared and “dirty” but there are things like glazes that are sold that are meant to go over paint so you might want to check those at at your local paint store. Otherwise you might want to stain first, see how you like it, and then paint over it if you don’t. Hope it helps!

Anyways We have an enclosed fireplace and the black is starting to tarnish. I was wondering if you had any tips on removing the tarnish? I like the black color and am thinking of going with a nice grey color for the living room…

We actually don’t know of anything to help with the tarnished issue that you’re dealing with off the top of our heads, but perhaps you can just ask someone at your local home improvement store for a suggestion? Hope it helps!

Hello, we have a fireplace that was painted a glossy white and we would like to redo it. What about using Textured Spray Paint? Have you ever worked with that? Also, do you know where I can find a picture of Thom Filicia’s glossy chocolated toned brick fireplace? Thank you.

We haven’t ever used textured spray paint but it should work as long as you take care to tape off the floor and the walls so you don’t get mist everywhere! As for Thom’s fireplace, maybe try googling around for his name and the word fireplace or his show “Dress My Nest” and the word fireplace since that’s where I saw it? Hope it helps!

Your blog is such an inspiration and I appreciate all you are willing to share. I’ve been a lurker for a year but now I have a question. I moved to TX a while back and there is an awful stone fireplace in my LR. It goes all the way to the ceiling and has a raised hearth. It was not well-made and the rounded edges of the hearth aren’t even (I’m a perfectionist) and the stone and grout are dark and dingy looking. There is a THICK board for a mantel that is so beefy and clunky looking to me. The fireplace is just a huge behemoth that over powers the space. Can you tell I don’t like it? LOL. I’ve seen beautiful stone fireplaces before but this in no way compares. I have a bid for $1000 to tear it out and build a less imposing more traditional fireplace. However, I thought I’d gamble and spend $50 on paint and see if I can learn to like it before I spend that kind of money to get rid of it. So I’m going to paint it this week. Per your instructions I’m going to apply oil-based primer to some sooty areas on the stone near the box. However, everything I’ve read in the past states you cannot paint latex over oil-based paints. What are your thoughts about that? Thanks, Beth

Good question! You can’t paint latex paint over oil-based PAINT, but latex paint is often applied over oil-based primer… in fact it’s the industry standard! Fear not, it’ll be perfect. And you might just save $950 and learn to love your fireplace!

I have a VERY small spot of soot that I can’t remove. Do you think Kilz would work? If not, could I just prime the 5″ x 6″ area and not the whole fireplace? The whole end of my basement living area is fireplace. It is 12 feet wide of ugly cheap brick.

Definitely! Kilz is just the brand name of one type of primer so that would work as long as you grab the oil-based version and not the water-based one. Then just repaint over the primer spot (once it’s fully dry) and you should be good to go. Hope it helps!

You guys have done such a great job on your home! It’s so cool that you inspire other homeowners to tackle their homes as well. Many of these projects are so do-able with the right tools and knowledge. I like to use a heavy nap (1″ or larger) merino wool roller and a brush for brick. Roll on the paint and then immediately go back and brush out your drips. The roller delivers paint much faster. Just don’t plan on keeping the roller used in the oil primer! Yuck. Latex paint washes out of merino faster than polyester or nylon. And it’s natural!

We actually haven’t done a thing to the inside of our fireplace we’ve heard that black heat resistant paint can be used for exactly that purpose, so you might want to check that out at your local home improvement store. Hope it helps!

I absolutely LOVE your house. I am in the process of remodeling a cottage house like yours as we speak. We are painting our brick wall which I am really excited about! My fiance was not up for it until I showed him your pics. I do have one question…..What colors did you paint your stripped bath room. I LOVE IT! and what about your other rooms. I love that neutral color.

I love your site! I’ve been following it for quite some time now!
My husband and I are currently looking to purchase our first home together and your site definitely helps me see the potential in many of the houses we’ve seen. It definitely gives me hope that we can still have a beautiful house even though we’re not gajillionaires! :)

I have a question, though. With some of the renovations you’ve done, how much of a factor was resale value? For example, does painting a fireplace or even wood floors somehow lower the resale value of your home when you want to sell it?

These are the many things that go through my mind during this crazy home buying adventure!

Your fireplace looks great. I read that acrylic paint should be used to paint brick fireplace,what do you think? Also our fireplace is from floor to ceiling (vaulted)so we are thinking of getting it done professionally by the painters that are going to paint the walls. Think that might too expensive?

You can definitely paint a fireplace yourself with a ladder if you’d like to DIY it (it’s a very basic process) but it’s a personal preference thing so if you’d just like to hire it out that’s totally your call. And as for acrylic paint, our method above (with latex paint) has worked for us for four years on two different fireplace so that’s what we recommend). Hope it helps!

About

Hey, we're Sherry & John. This is where we chronicled 7 years of our lives as we fixed up 3 homes, had 2 children, became accidental authors and product designers, and shared our adventures (and misadventures) with the world. Now it's a time capsule of sorts, complete with nearly 3,000 posts, projects, and updates.